Good week, change placement anyway?
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| Fri, 03-09-2007 - 8:00am |
I'm speculating a little here. We have another team meeting today so I'll know more later. Kyle has had a good week. Now I assume this means no melt downs but still spending very little time 10-20 mins in his core reg. ed classes and then going to his office to work with the 1:1. I think they may still recomend changing his placement even though he had a good week as far as meltdowns go. I'm guessing this because the Principal called me and told me he'd talked to the special education director about alternative placements and he's spoken to the staff at one of them. He invited them to come and observe Kyle. He then realized he needed my permission and called to make sure it was ok with me. He also asked if I wanted him to set up some appointments to look at this alternative placement. So even though the IEP team hasn't officialy agreed a placement change is needed it sounds like they are making arangements.
Obviously last week and the weeks prior I was ready to move him. Now after 3 days of no meltdowns I'm having second thoughts. I need to be objective and think about what is best for Kyle long term. I'm thinking even if he can make it through his day with no meltdowns is this really appropriate for him-going to class just to get the assingment or lesson and then leaving to work on his own/with the aide in his "office".
Your thoughts please.
Samantha, who needs a vacation.

Here are my thoughts. Particularly mid year it can be challenging logistically to make placement changes. There may not be a spot open in the right class, you have to work out the transition from one to another, get all involved parties to get all the information, find the right placement, etc.
I am really glad Kyle has had 3 good days. It hopefully means you are on the right path. I would still look at the other placements and go through the logistic stuff so you are prepared incase you decide the other placement is more appropriate.
I think the principal is doing the right thing. He isn't say "move kyle now". He is trying while there is some stability to make sure to have everything ready and get all the information set so it isn't an emergency situation of "what the heck do we do with this kid".
You can go and do all the visits and such and not change placement yet. You can say easily at todays meeting that you are going to look but want to give it another week before you make a decision. I think it would take that long at least before everything was set up. That way you can get a better idea of how this will work out.
I am glad he has had 3 good days Samantha, I really am. But it is only 3 days. Do the research and give him another week and see if he continues to progress and gets more comfortable in his skin. See if there are spots available in the other class and if you feel comfortable with the placement then make your decision.
Renee
Thank you, Renee.
The meeting was very informative. The school psychologist is very familiar with the program the Principal was looking into. She said she feels it is inapropriate for Kyle. They have kids with some serious emotional problems there and start each day with an hour of talk therapy. She said there are kids there who bully other kids and felt Kyle wouldn't handle it. That was the only option given by the Special Education director. (the initial one mentioned turned out to be only though 5th grade) The psychologist said she knows of a couple schools who have a self contained class and she'd check into them this week.
They did say they will set something up in our homeschool for next yr. They have 5 kids coming up who will need a similar program so they don't have a choice. The principal said he hopes to have the final go ahead in the next 2 wks for it.
The special ed teacher said she wants to see Kyle stay put and she's willing to do what it takes. They've had a couple rough spots this week but they are better recognizing the warning signs and Kyle is starting to use the break card when prompted instead of refusing and going straight into melt down. We do have progress. So it looks like we are going to stick it out here. But the psychologist is going to keep checking for other options just in case he backslides.
Samantha
OMG, well at least it sounds like you have a good team.
That program the principal looked into sounds like an ED placement which would not be appropriate for Kyle at all. I am glad they recognize that and are trying to keep him where he is at and make it successful then design a program around these kids.
I keep hearing rumor that they are going to start a program for kids like Mike in middle school for next year but haven't seen it become reality yet. Until then he is slated to go to the private school.
Last night in one of my classes I met an SDC teacher from our neighborhood middle school. It is one of the placements I was going to look into for Mike. Turns out she has an AS kid in her program she tried to get into Cait's AS program. The teacher was told her student was "Too AS" for that program. How does a kid be "Too AS" for the autistic/asperger program? Well because like Mike he has behaviors and needs more than minimal support.
Heck, I consider Cait to be a pretty easy going, easy to deal with Aspie and she can barely handle that program. I was talking to a friend who is an RSP aide in our local high school. She currently is the aide for 2 autistic boys who are high IQ and mainstreamed. She provides more supports and modifications through RSP then Cait can seem to get in her specialized program. In fact I just changed Cait's binder system to one this teacher told me about that they use.
UGH, gotta stop before I go to frustration land again with schools, LOL
Renee
Samantha,
It does sound like you do have a good team there, and a good school psych. I would keep an open mind and *look* at other options, remembering that "in place" rules apply.
You can keep the LRE card in your back pocket to use whenever needed.
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